Westwood, Rouse impress with bi-district baseball sweeps as more Austin-area teams move on

No one is the state believed Westwood would advance in the Class 6A playoffs.

That was just fine with the Warriors, though. They believed in themselves.

Westwood, the No. 4 seed out of District 25-6A after beating Vandegrift in a play-in game earlier in the week just to make the playoffs, finished off an eye-opening sweep of Lake Travis in the bi-district round with a 3-2 win Saturday at East View High School.

“We expect to win when we step on the field,” Westwood coach Casey Carter said. “I don’t think many people gave us much of a shot, but our pitching staff is our strength and giving up three hits in two games against a team like that is a testament to our guys.”

Westwood got hot at the right time: the playoffs

Lake Travis entered the playoffs with arguably the most impressive regular season in the Austin area. The Cavs won 25 games and went 15-1 in winning a loaded District 26-6A, but after Westwood received a brilliant pitching performance from Owen Norrell during Thursday's 5-1 first-game win, they were suddenly on the verge of a playoff exit.

Ridge Morgan continued Westwood’s pitching dominance Saturday, striking out eight and allowing only one hit in 6⅓ innings to pace the Warriors, and for the second straight game, Jacob Wright closed the door. Wright came in with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh with a 3-1 lead and induced a fly ball and groundout around a walk to push the Warriors into the area round for the second time in three years.

“Our pitchers competed, battled, threw strikes, trusted our defense and pitched to contact, which is what we preached all year,” Carter said. “We have three really good starters and have a lot of guys that didn’t even pitch this series that we have a lot of faith in.”

The Warriors used Jackson Gula’s single, three walks and an error to score twice in the first, then took a 3-0 lead in the second on Morgan’s RBI double to left. Morgan retired the side four times in six innings before loading the bases in the seventh. But Wright finished off the game and Westwood sent shockwaves across the state while proving its doubters wrong.

“The guys are ecstatic,” Carter said. “We have a lot of seniors on this team, and they don’t want this to end. Our catcher Mike Davis had a quote, 'We’re not done yet,' and we’ve kind of embraced that and run with it. It’s been a rallying cry for us the last couple of weeks.”

Rouse rolls to easy sweep

Rouse is the team no one wants to see in the Class 5A playoffs.

A year after making a run to the regional final as a No. 4 seed, the Raiders finished off a relatively easy bi-district sweep of Smithson Vallley on Saturday with a 7-1 win at home. The No. 3 seed out of District 25-5A this year, Rouse outscored a 23-win Rangers team 13-3 over two games and Oscar Salazar and Carson Henderson combined for a no-hitter in Game 2.

“We gave up two hits the whole series, so we pitched well,” Rouse coach Chad Krempin said. “This week in practice we went to work to fix some things offensively. We wanted to get back to basics, and that was good. I liked our approaches at the plate today. We only struck out twice, so at the plate we were really good.”

More: UIL baseball playoffs: Bowie, East View, Georgetown, Hendrickson sweep into area round

Salazar struck out 10 in 5⅔ innings and helped himself at the plate going 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. Landon Miller also had two hits for the Raiders. Salazar’s RBI single highlighted a three-run third, with Andrew Sanchez belting a run-scoring triple in the fourth. Salazar came through again in the sixth by hitting a two-run double to finish off Rouse’s night offensively.

Henderson struck out three of the four batters he saw in relief and Jacob Soliz went 1-for-1 with a double, two walks and two runs scored in other notable numbers for the Raiders.

Krempin, who earlier this season earned his 500th career win, said there wasn’t any one reason why the Raiders perennially perform well in May, but he did note he puts an emphasis on the playoffs and a few aspects of the game throughout the year.

“There are teams out there with better talent than us, and I push these kids hard all season so that we’re hopefully playing well at the right time,” he said. “We want to put the ball in play more than the opponent. I know it’s simple, but that and playing well on defense has kind of been the formula for me all these years.”

Around Class 6A

Dripping Springs 2, Cedar Ridge 1: Jaxon Conover tossed a complete game, striking out four, scattering five hits and allowing no earned runs and both Dom Hurley and Traigh Perry had RBI singles to lead the Tigers to the win in the series-deciding Game 3 at Dripping Springs. Trailing 1-0 after the Raiders scored an unearned run to start the game, Hurley singled home Taylor Tracey in the bottom of the first and Perry brought home Nick Tyndall in the third.

Round Rock 7, Johnson 0: Jacob Gayman went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer, Chris Alsobrooks was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Isaac Rodriguez, Josh Horvath and Brandon Smith combined for a two-hit shutout as the Dragons won Game 3 and the series at Del Valle.

Around Class 5A

Elgin 11, LASA 1: The Wildcats completed their bi-district sweep in five innings at home. Jalen Owens struck out nine and only allowed two hits in a complete game on the mound, while Austin Miller went 3-for-3 with three RBIs, Cason Nalle went 2-for-3 with a double and RBI and Elgin took advantage of 10 walks.

Cedar Park rolls on: The Timberwolves routed San Antonio Pieper 11-0 and 7-1 in two games played Friday and Saturday at Bastrop.

In the opener, Brady Richardson threw a complete-game shutout with five strikeouts and went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored to help himself at the plate. Kade Davis, Carter Woehl and Mack Galindo all had two hits and combined for five RBIs and three runs scored.

In Game 2, Luke O’Malley tossed 5⅓ innings and Kyle McClure finished the final five outs on the mound. Jake Cowlishaw went 2-for-2 with a double and run scored and Drew Robertson, Logan Hedges and Richardson all had two hits, with the latter two each driving in a run.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Westwood, Rouse impress in UIL state baseball playoff wins